Morning journal and courier., 1887-07-23
An Tnterestfng Letter.

The Young Republican of this city for July
 says: A well known New Haven gentleman,
 who has recently joined the club and is a
 member of large manufacturing concern,
 in a private letter to one of the editors of
 this journal writes from abroad as follows:
 'Talking of labor and it's cost, feel bet
 ter satisfied every day that am here that I
 did the correct thing in joining the Young
 Mems Republican club, if only on the tariff
 issue.
 "While at Karlsbad I made little excur-
 sions into the surrounding country, and
 through Berlin gentleman with whom got acquainted visited several factories, particu- Iarly those carrying on the manufacture of porcelain, for which this district is headquar- ters.
 'sThrough the courtesy of the manager of the factory at Dallwitz, large establishment covering several acres of ground, I learned that girls of whom they employ great many in the different departments, earned from one and half to four f1orins per week. 1orin equals forty cents in American money. girl of the same age and requiring no more technical knowledge can earn from $4 to $S and $9 per week, depending, of course, on her individual skill and industry right, in our factory and in score more in New Haven. The manager further informed me that a 'bursch, or young fellow from fifteen to nineteen years of age, could be hired for 8 little more, and that fair days pay for man was one f1orin.
 ''This appears to be the scale of wages paid pretty much all through this section.
 t'The food that these people get wouldn't satisfy our workingmen and women at home. They live on rye bread, potatoes, beer, etc.. very little if any meat. It is very different oI, I. r @EA done, and have them brought face to face. It strikes me more and more that the tariff question at home is to a certain extent a question to what diet our working people should live on. While a reduction of the tariff would tem- porarily cripple our manufacturers whose products were affected by the change, things would adjust themselves after @ little time to the new conditions, and our manufacturers would have to compete not only with each other but with manufacturers in all sections of the world like this, where labor can be bought for next to nothing. The new con- ditions' would mean less pay for their help, and granting that the purchasing power ot money would be increased, so that clothing, shoes, furniture, etc., could be bought pro- portionately for the same or less than to-day, how much would reduced tariff lower the price of beef bread, milk, and rent? We ex- port some of these articles at present. I am puzzled how men of broad mind can advo- cate free trade, or fair trade, as some of them call it. Theoretically, they figure things down very fine, but practical application of their plan would, it strikes me, work much harm"
 It hardly seems necessary to add anything by way of comment to the above. It is a whole sermon, of which every sober minded young man must feel the serious force It may not be out of place right here to observe that the EFprOtectiOno idea has taken hold of our foreign neighbors in a way that indicates that the consideration of the doctrine is about to become the burning political question of the hour.